Friday, October 12, 2007

Ann Coulter's Remarks on Jews

Not content to advocate for banning women from voting, Ann Coulter's just said that "We just want Jews to be perfected"... by converting to Christianity.

Oh, but there's much more. Hey, she's been a bigot to virtually every other group already! Why not spread the hatred?

(There may be better copies of this interview up later, but this one covers the key lines I've heard reported so far. Please note that there are commercials in the middle you can scroll through.)

I dissected Ann Coulter at length in an earlier post, "The Aryan Minstrel Show." It should be no surprise to anyone that Coulter is a bigot and homophobe, or at least plays one on TV, since much of it's an act for her. However, most conservatives have dismissed any outrage over her various remarks or have even cheered her on. Although others have led the charge, the current attacks by the right-wing on the Frost family are the epitome of Coulter — nasty, shameless, personal attacks with a conscious avoidance of substance.

Coulter is not entertaining, except to movement conservatives and paid hacks, but the public reaction to her latest remarks could prove to be quite entertaining. Most conservatives were fine with her calling Bill Clinton gay, Al Gore a "total fag," and John Edwards a "faggot." They were fine with her smearing military veterans who didn't agree with her (just as with Limbaugh's "phony soldiers" comment). Most were fine with her smearing the 9/11 widows, and some applauded her when she called Arabs "ragheads." Hell, conservatives took her statement about Muslims, that "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity," and put it on T-shirts. That statement was six years ago. So her bigotry is not exactly breaking news.

On the right, it's considered fair game to slander liberals, and among movement conservatives, it's encouraged to demonize Muslims. But anti-Semitism is another matter altogether. As racist as much of the far right is, in public they normally speak in code, because they know it's frowned upon. While many Christian evangelicals may feel as Coulter does in this clip, most of them are smart enough not to say it aloud. Coulter has normally been pretty savvy about calculating her level of obnoxiousness. But here, she was playing to a Christian fundamentalist crowd and forgot both her immediate and larger audience. Some of her staunchest allies just had their heritage and religion besmirched. How will they respond?

Some conservatives will indeed condemn Coulter, and rightly so. Some will make excuses, and it'll be interesting to see who does what (Hannity's support is a given). Coulter will continue to defend herself and claim she was taken out of context. I would be shocked if she apologized, because her entire persona is based on not apologizing for even her most outrageous provocations. With Rush Limbaugh's phony soldiers remark and the Michelle Malkin-led crusade against the Frosts, it's suddenly a most fascinating period to observe movement conservatives. They've always been a hateful, vicious, petty lot, but suddenly it's on full public display.

Anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry are serious matters. Meanwhile, Coulter has never deserved a serious platform to spew her bile. Several newspapers have dropped her column over the past two years due to the public's growing disgust or simple fatigue. If Coulter's latest outrage costs her and further shrinks her platform, then surely all America has benefited.